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FreeBSD Will Pay For Some KMS & GEM Love

10-22-2010, 02:00 PM

Phoronix: FreeBSD Will Pay For Some KMS & GEM Love

Chris Wilson of Intel back in July had written a branch of the Intel X.Org display driver (xf86-video-intel) that added back user-space mode-setting support to their open-source driver that did not need the Graphics Execution Manager (GEM) within the kernel to function. This code was previously stripped away from the driver previously since KMS+GEM is the future they wanted to head in, but for those with vintage Intel i8xx-era graphics hardware using these newer code paths frequently resulted in lock-ups and other problems. Rather than trying to solve the actual problem at hand of GEM and KMS for this old hardware, the easier solution was viewed to just add back non-GEM UMS support...

That would be great I'm currently limping along on an older laptop because none of the newer intel i3 / i5 IGP's have support under FreeBSD due to this or at least such was my understanding. ATI driver support is still questionable, at least to me, on newer hardware and although I'm happy to use the nVidia blob finding a laptop with a high-res screen (1920x1080), a nvidia GPU and not a gaming laptop with a i7 (read: space heater) in it seems to be impossible.

Is 1920x1080, 15 or 17" screen, an i3 or AMD equivalent with a nvidia 420M or so that much to ask? I wish it was easier to custom build laptops

Comment

That would be great I'm currently limping along on an older laptop because none of the newer intel i3 / i5 IGP's have support under FreeBSD due to this or at least such was my understanding. ATI driver support is still questionable, at least to me, on newer hardware and although I'm happy to use the nVidia blob finding a laptop with a high-res screen (1920x1080), a nvidia GPU and not a gaming laptop with a i7 (read: space heater) in it seems to be impossible.

Is 1920x1080, 15 or 17" screen, an i3 or AMD equivalent with a nvidia 420M or so that much to ask? I wish it was easier to custom build laptops